Flavor

Where to Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth Craving this Week

Over the last year a few very unique spots have opened up all featuring delicious, ice cold treats of various shapes and sizes. We scouted out a few spots from all over town and got the low down on what to try during the dog days of summer.

Since May 1 of this year, San Antonio north sides Iggy’s Italian Ice combines Italian ice and gelato in a unique way. The company itself is a family-owned organization that franchises all over, the local store is owned by the original family and along with awesome dessert, is also happy to help organize fundraisers for various needs. They pride themselves on over 130 million flavor combinations of “gelati” their word for the combination of gelato and Italian ice — all made in house. You can combine any of their flavors in any order that you'd like, up to three flavors for a small cup and five in a large. Pick your cup size and just write it down directly on the side in order of how you want it stacked and they'll do it up for you. Store manager Kensi recommends trying the combinations listed on the chalkboard menu, and says that the strawberry cheesecake, Dreamsicle, and creamy coffee are the most popular menu items. She also adds that all of their Italian ice flavors are gluten- and lactose-free with the exception of salted caramel, so there is something for everyone at Iggys. I let Kensi pick a series of flavors she enjoys and ended up with a cup layered with a fine, fresh fruit forward strawberry ice on top, super creamy, perfectly sweetened vanilla ice cream in the center, and a refreshingly fruity mango ice on the bottom.

Iggy’s is open daily; noon-10pm Mon-Thu, noon-11pm Friday and Saturday, and noon-7pm Sunday.

Open for business for a little over one year now, Arctic Ape is a family-owned and operated shop, that makes for a very interactive dessert experience. The concept was explained to me by store employee Joshua Burton, as “an experience that is limited only by your imagination.”

Upon walking in, you will see that it is up to you to construct your treat, whether demure or extravagant. The wall is lined with double-sided ice cream dispensers that you can pull individual flavors from, or use the middle lever to try the store suggested flavor combination listed above each machine. Grab a cup and pick from the 10 different home-made flavors or five combos. From there, head to the topping offerings, from various cereals to candies of all varieties and all sorts of sweets in between.

After adding your toppings, move along to the selection of dozens of sauces to layer on top. Once you are all done building your dessert one of the store employees will weigh your creation to determine the cost, much like at other fro-yo shops. There is no calculated combination of ice cream and toppings, but Burton explained the strawberry cheesecake combination is one of the stores most popular options. I couldn’t commit to one particular combo, so I grabbed a cup separator and went for red velvet cake and vanilla ice cream which I topped with cocoa puffs, crushed Kit-Kat bars, Sixlets, and cookie dough. For my other half, I went for the blue raspberry sorbet topped with Sour Patch Kids and gummy worms. Arctic Ape is open daily; noon-10pm Sun-Thu, noon-11pm Fri-Sat.

Open only since July of this year, Krazy Kravings is a dessert food truck offering decked out shaved ice based desserts. Krazy Kravings has taken flavors Texans love such as chamoy and Lucas and combined it with various sour candies and flavored shaved ice.
In their short life a few things have proven to be the most popular amongst their fan base: the Krazy Mangonada which combines chamoy, mango shaved ice, and tons of sour candies including even an edible tamarind straw; the Krazy Mango Split, similar to the mangonada, but served in between a split dill pickle; and the Krazy Giant Bear, featuring an entire one-pound gummy bear covered in chamoy, on top of shaved ice and Lucas.
While they are most frequently found in the parking lot of the H-E-B on SW Military drive, it’s worth following their Facebook page to see where they are when you decided to check them out. Krazy Kravings is open daily; noon-10pm barring inclement weather.